You can view Sales Corner if your post count is 50 or more and you have been registered as a member for 60 days or more.
You can post in Sales Corner if your post count is 250 or more and you have been registered as a member for 180 days or more.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

G-Shock GMW B5000 - Stainless Steel Bracelet

Let me start by making a dreadful confession, until recently I was a G-Shock brand hater. Sadly I dismissed them as lumps of plastic, often looking as though they had been built out of Lego and the type of thing you bought from Argos for a 12 year old nephew. So you could say I was not a fanboy of the brand.

Who better then to carry out an unbiased review

A few weeks back pictures started to appear in WT of a new G-Shock with a stainless steel bracelet in silver and gold and I began to think they look nice. The flat square screen bordered by a steel frame which extended into the bracelet looked cool. The more pictures I saw, the more I liked it. I even started to read about it to see what this new 35th anniversary release was all about.

To cut a long story short I took delivery of the silver yesterday (details about that came about can be found on a hero status for wileeeeeey).

Setting the basic time was fairly easy then onto the tricky business of adjusting the bracelet. Each link has a spring pin, but it is only half the width of the bracelet and sits in the centre section of each link. So you have to push a pin in and dislodge the centre section and repeat on the other side. A little fiddly but you get to grips after a few goes. Once sorted the bracelet is really comfortable and is a great bit of kit.

The next job was to download the App to my phone and then connect the Watch to the phone. There are decent instructions which are fairly easy to follow. You then end up with a watch that is updated four times a day.

In addition to that there is tracking which shows where the watch is.

And an additional click a detailed map.

Other things can be changed to suit your own tastes, I changed mine from May 6th to the 6th May - none of that American rubbish for me.

The watch also has an auto light in dark conditions. Turn your wrist 90 degrees to look at the time and the watch lights up. I have increased my light time from 2 to 4 seconds.

The watch has a whole host of international functions that I am unlikely to use like which cities to list on the time zone page etc.

So in conclusion, the watch doesn't need winding, it doesn't need setting, it doesn't need a regular battery change, is auto corrected 4 times a day and has a whole host of other features. Makes a normal three handed watch seem a little dull by comparison.

Great write up thanks Ken. I really like the look of it and will be on the look out for trying one on in Japan.

I wonder whether the last location of the watch is actually of the watch or just when it last synced with the phone via Bluetooth, using the phone GPS? Would be pretty cool if the watch itself has a GPS chip.

Great write up thanks Ken. I really like the look of it and will be on the look out for trying one on in Japan.

I wonder whether the last location of the watch is actually of the watch or just when it last synced with the phone via Bluetooth, using the phone GPS? Would be pretty cool if the watch itself has a GPS chip.

Must be based on where it was last 'seen' by the phone; if it had GPS you'd think they'd be banging on about it! But I can't see it having that capability given the battery situation.

Excellent that yours is going down so well, Ken. Really like the sound of the tailoring of the functions and lit time etc.

I checked it out today, I went out for a 5 mile walk leaving the phone at home and asked the wife to do an occasional track. We concluded that it is not the same as 'find friends' on a phone that uses GPS and tells you where someone is. I use this device to put the kettle on for a pot of tea when the wife is on the way home from work.

I think with the watch you press a button and it will record your location, so not really an automatic tracking system, unless I am not using it correctly.

Certainly one to look out for in Japan. If you get a sniff of the Porter edition, grab it with both hands.

Really good write up. The coolest thing by far about this watch (apart from it being metal) is that if you hold the bottom right button until it goes to the second option it activates a “find my phone” feature and even if your phone is on silent it plays a loud song/noise. I assume it has to be within Bluetooth distance but so good if your phone is on silent and you can’t remember if it’s upstairs, downstairs or in the car!